Students love the colors of Monet prints. The sunny yellows, misty blues, soft lavenders, and outrageous oranges. Using this as inspiration, Michelle Maroni wanted her students to discover new painting techniques and ways of planning a composition with more spontaneity. In this article, she describes how she introduced Claude Monet to her students as a painter of the seemingly spontaneous, but an artist who actually used a careful eye and mind. She introduced her lesson by discussing the life of the artist as a gardener. Students observed photographs taken from his garden, and paired them with his paintings. She explained how colors changed depending on the time of day, and why he painted the same subject over and over. This discussion brought them to Monet's lily ponds. Students pointed to every color they saw, taking note that it was not just blue or green. When students began shouting colors like fuchsia, magenta, and tangerine, she realized that they were ready to proceed with an art project. This article describes the art project, where students use different media, techniques, and processes to experiment with techniques of layering to create their own versions of Impressionist, and Monet inspired works. A list of materials and directions are included.